Paynes Prairie

We both slept well as we have on most nights here. The area is quiet, and the room is dark for sleeping.

Wild horses grazing among sandhill cranes

Cindy, Mary and I took the dogs on their morning walk then returned to have the oatmeal for breakfast. Jade enjoyed the walk, but Cedar clearly didn’t want to go out without Mark. The whole time we were walking away from the house, she constantly looked back for Mark. As we were coming back, she walked anxiously toward the house. Once in the yard she immediately ran to check on Mark. She is clearly a one-man dog.

Bison at Paynes Prairie

We drove north through Crystal River and Inglis to Paynes Prairie, south of Gainesville. As with most Florida state parks, the fee was $6. From the visitor center we walked out the Cones Dike Trail to view a huge flock of sandhill cranes, as well as many other waterfowl and shorebirds including snipes, coots, gallinules, a limpkin and a whooping crane. We walked out into the prairie where we saw a herd of perhaps a dozen bison. There are also horses that were descended from the genetic stock of the horses brought to Florida by early Spanish explorers in the 1500s. We spent a good deal of time in the area walking the trails and looking at the plants. We stopped by the visitor center again the continued north to additional trails into the prairie and an overlook of Lake Wauburg. We walked the Bolen Bluff Trail for 2.6 miles where we walked through wetlands.

Sandhill cranes feeding

Dinner was the chili and corn muffins that Mark made earlier. We had a great day but were tired. We watched the first of three hours of “And Then There Were None” on Acorn before we went to bed at 10 pm.